Aminu Adamu was reportedly arrested on the order of the Senior Police Officer, Usman Shugaba, an Aide-De-Camp to Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari.
There has been outrage on and off social media over the arrest of Adamu, a 23-year-old student of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State.
The young man was recently arrested and assaulted over a Twitter post where he accused Aisha Buhari of feeding fat on poor people’s money.
Though the police had feigned ignorant of Adamu’s arrest, a source who spoke authoritatively to SaharaReporters said that the ADC was the one who “sent the policemen to bring the student to Aso Rock” for a round of assaults and brutalization.
“He was the one who sent the policemen to Dutse to pick up the poor student. They brought him to Aso Rock in Abuja and started assaulting him. The ADC is as power-drunk as his principal (Aisha Buhari),” the source said.
Adamu’s friends had defended him saying he made the post because he was frustrated about the prolonged strike by public universities across the country.
Recall that the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) started in February 2022 and ended in October after eight months.
However, on November 8, 23-year-old Adamu was picked up by security operatives, reportedly on the order of Shugaba and was beaten up following his arrest around noon.
It could be recalled that the ADC to the First Lady in February 2022, reportedly ordered an assault on a man (name withheld) for criticising his governorship ambition on social media.
He was said to be considering running for governor in his home state of Kaduna State.
SaharaReporters reported that the young man on social media criticized Shugaba for involving in politics despite being a policeman.
He also accused him of using the State House security operatives to intimidate supporters of his opponents. A source confirmed to the news platform that after the post, Shugaba ordered an assault on the man.
He was also arrested and detained at the Nigeria Police Force headquarters for six days.
“The young man went on social media and criticised him for aspiring to run for governor while still a policeman as if we are in (late Sani) Abacha’s regime. I was told he and the boy lived in the same estate in Maitama. So, he got him arrested for one week,” the source had said.
“The boy was really tortured in the cell. He told the young officers to keep beating him until he tell him which of his rivals paid the boy to criticise him on social media. He threatened to kill him if he didn’t talk.
“The boy was really tortured that they had to take him to Cedecrest hospital in Abuja immediately he was released after six days. After he was released, he told the boy not to tell anyone unless he would ask his boys to kill him. He claimed nobody can query him for any of his actions.
“He has started threatening the boy’s mother as well. He was also forced to confess on camera that he was defaming him not he won’t be released. Imagine, a law officer acting like a garage boy.”
Records also had it that Shugaba was responsible for forcing President Muhammadu Buhari’s Personal Assistant, Saibu ‘Tunde’ Yusuf out of Aso Villa in 2020 after the latter refused to embark on a 14-day isolation period after a trip from Lagos.
Shugaba was said to have rough-handled Yusuf, who later escaped to the residence of Mamman Daura, Buhari’s nephew and member of the “cabal.”
Subsequently, Yusuf with the active connivance of the President’s Chief Security Officer, Idris Kassim, ordered the Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, Bala Ciroma, to arrest Shugaba, Escort Commander and other policemen attached to the First Lady.
It was claimed that gunshots were fired in the process of trying to get Yusuf out of the Villa, thereby breaching the hing security code around Buhari.
The incident led to the withdrawal of Buhari’s security details including Shugaba until they were reinstated weeks after.
